Saturday, March 18, 2017

Meeting our first hunters

It’s Sunday morning in London. The weather, grey and windy, is miserable as we walk along Exhibition road, but the crowds are lively and the museums are packed.

From our logs, we know that somewhere inside the bustling Victoria and Albert museum 6 groups of people are doing our treasure hunt. We want to catch up with them. “Bears” writes one visitor, having presumably just found himself surrounded by tapestries depicting gruesome hunting scenes. “Roses”, writes another, probably craning her neck as she inspects the gigantic bed of Ware, large enough to accommodate four couples.

Down in the basement we spot two people hunched over a medieval candlestick. Sure enough, they’re doing the hunt. “It’s like having our own private tour!” says Liz, a civil servant from Cheshire. “Large museums can be overwhelming sometimes, so it’s great to have a game like this to give our visit a focus.”

Up on the top floor, we bump into Mel and Lucy. “I’ve been to the V&A museum loads of times” says Mel, a London native, “but this hunt is taking me to rooms I never knew existed”. “It would be a great thing for school groups” says her friend Lucy, a teacher, “when planning our last trip I specifically searched the museum website and was surprised that they didn’t already offer something like this”.

Another group is hot on their tail, so we leave the hunters to it. It’s been great to get out and get some feedback. Having launched our first hunts in January, we've been surprised by the quick uptake we've seen as a result of being featured in